VOTE LIFE

I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live...

All Souls Day

REMEMBER, MAN, you are dust and to dust you shall return.

On All Souls Day, we recall those who have died and especially pray for them.  As yesterday was a Sunday, the feast has been transferred to today.

We live in society that simultaneously is squeamish about death yet glorifies violence in its entertainment; a society that promises universal health and yet unfeelingly kills the unborn in vast numbers and is prepared to extend that killing to the elderly, disabled, and unwanted.  Our forefathers kept the reality of death ever before them and therefore held life as precious gift.

November is the month of the Holy Souls, and during this waning time of year, it is especially fitting to consider the four last things of death, judgement, Heaven, and Hell.

Graves of priests of Saint Liborius Church; located at Saints Peter and Paul Cemetery, in Saint Louis, Missouri.

Click here for Daniel Mitsui's collection of postings of memento mori.

The Church teaches that prayers for the dead are efficacious, and this is also recognized universally by ancient religion.  Whereas modern-day funeral or memorial services tend to offer little to us or for the dead, ancient liturgies pray for the departed and serve as a stark warning to ourselves.

The ancient Catholic Requiem Mass of the Dead is offered today at Saint Francis de Sales Oratory at 12:10 (low Mass) and 6:30 p.m. (High Mass), as well as at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday.  A Requiem Mass for Alice Bub will be held on November 8th at 6:30 p.m., and will feature the musical setting of Gabriel Fauré with choir and orchestra.

Fall Color

Photo taken yesterday.

All Saints' Day

O Christ, thy guilty people spare!
Lo, kneeling at thy gracious throne,
Thy Virgin-Mother pours her prayer,
Imploring pardon for her own.

Ye angels, happy evermore!
Who in your circles nine ascend,
As ye have guarded us before,
So still from harm our steps defend.

Ye prophets and Apostles high!
Behold our penitential tears;
And plead for us when death is nigh,
our all-searching judge appears.

Ye martyrs all! a purple band,
And confessors, a white-robed train;
Oh, call us to our native land,
From this our exile, back again.

And ye, O choirs of virgins chaste!
Receive us to your seats on high;
With hermits whom the desert waste
Sent up of old into the sky.

Drive from the flock, O Spirit blest!
The false and faithless race away;
That all within one fold may rest,
Secure beneath one shepherd's sway.

To God the Father glory be,
And to his sole-begotten Son;
And glory, Holy Ghost, to thee,
While everlasting ages run.
Amen.